TTC Story: Anything Is Possible In Your TTC Journey

After 10 years of marriage, two brain surgeries and a 7 year battle with infertility and a hysterectomy, it has not been an easy road for Candace and her husband, Chris. That is when they decided that in order to overcome adversity, you must stare it directly in the face with humor and positivity. Candace and her husband co-write a blog called Our Misconception blog which was created 2012, sharing both a male and female perspective on the daily struggles of living with the disease of infertility. Their blog also won the 2014 RESOLVE Hope Award for Best Blog.

Can you briefly introduce yourself?

Hello! We are Candace and Chris from Our Misconception blog and MTV’s True Life. We love wine, craft beers, getting lost in new places and surrounding ourselves with friends and family.

Infertility is a couples disease and we write, advocate and encourage others through humor and both a honest, his and her perspective on infertility, marriage, surrogacy and parenting after infertility.

Tell us your TTC story. What was the issue you were facing and what treatments you tried?

Got a few hours? I kid, I kid. How about I just share the cliff notes version? We started out like any other couple: wine, Barry White paying in the background and lots of naivety. A year later and a gut feeling inside, we started getting the beginning testing stages. I had lining issues but nothing that fertility medication couldn’t handle. After 6 IUIs and no real reason why it shouldn’t have worked, we moved forward with our first IVF. One paper everything was fine, Chris was on the lower end of sperm count but still had enough to make things happen. We were in the frustrating “unexplained” category which left our Dr.s scratching their heads and also led to a compounding stack of medical bills.

After my first failed IVF, we were advised to do a hysteroscopy. Our RE discovered a small amount of hyperplasia, removed it and went forward with our second IVF. We would go on to have 4 more hysteroscopy’s and a laparoscopy intermittent between failed IVF after failed IVF. If you are tracking with me here, I had 5 failed IVFs. You see, our embryos were beautiful and I always had plenty of fertilized embryos but my problem was implantation.

Each hysteroscopy they would remove more hyperplasia and it would come back stronger and more invasive, finally turning into complex hyperplasia and subsequently, the beginning stages of uterine cancer. My oncologist treated me with a “Band-Aid” treatment per say, so I could give IVF one last shot. My 6th and final IVF round was coupled with Intra-lipid infusions which failed and subsequently, I moved forward with a partial hysterectomy.

Have a documentary of your TTC journey is so special. Can you tell us your experience?

It was a wild experience. The casting producer discovered our blog while casting for the show. They filmed us for a little under a year. Capturing all of the peaks and valleys that come along with infertility. At one point within a 3 day period they flew to Chicago to film the first couple’s positive results, hopped on a plane and then filmed us get our negative results. They witnessed the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in a fertility journey all within a 72 hour period. I remember when we got “the call” from our RE. The film crew waited empathetically for what seemed to be forever as we grieved alone. When we came out of our room, they too were wiping back tears. Two men. You see, they had watched all of the injections, all of the hope and all of pain that I went through only to have the door slam shut. In my case, indefinitely.

It was an amazing experience and we still keep in contact with the producers and staff. They are quite incredible people.

Ironically, Chris and I were not always open about our infertility. We were muted by our disease for many years prior to starting our blog. Talking openly about our infertility was freeing and one of the best decisions we have made throughout our journey, sharing it on national TV came with its challenges but we were able to show so many that they too, are not alone. [Related post "TTC story: We Are 1in 8, But We Are Not Alone" ]

You have some great recipes on your blog for TTC couples. Can you share your favorite one and tell us why?

Thank you. We love to eat. Doesn’t everybody? Really though, when were in the throes of conceiving, my diet and health were very important. Even if it was a .0003% increase of a chance that eating XYZ would improve our conception rate, I would do it! I studied up on foods that fertility friendly and how specific foods affected key issues. For example Omega 3’s have been proven ideal for improving implantation. So I would incorporate that into my regular diet. Hands down my favorite recipe is the Basil Salmon. It is easy to make, healthy, a high source of Omega 3’s and delicious. I still make it regularly. [Read " Top 6 Foods to Boost Your Chance of Getting Pregnant " to learn what to eat to boost your fertility.]

Anything else you’d like to share?

I would like to share that anything is possible. Your path to parenthood may not always be how you envisioned it. Trust me, our bank account drained quickly from years of treatment. With dwindling hope, no money and 2 frozen embryos with womb to put them in viably, we still pressed forward. We began to fundraise and we started the adoption process. Through those efforts a previous gestational carrier who happened to be a friends sister, offered to carry for us. The rest was history. We fundraised, we prayed, we kept hoping. As a result, I sit here typing and listening to my very active, wiggly, giggly 1 year old daughter, laughing and playing. That sound my friends is worth EVERY.SINGLE.TEAR.

About Candace & Chris

After 10 years of marriage, two brain surgeries and a 7 year battle with infertility and a hysterectomy, it has not been an easy road for Candace and her husband, Chris. That is when they decided that in order to overcome adversity, you must stare it directly in the face with humor and positivity. Candace and her husband co-write a blog called Our Misconception blog which was created 2012, sharing both a male and female perspective on the daily struggles of living with the disease of infertility. Their blog also won the 2014 RESOLVE Hope Award for Best Blog.

On July 28th, MTV’s True Life, “I’m Desperate to Have a Baby,” a documentary on couples who struggle with infertility aired. After stumbling across their blog, MTV picked Candace and Chris to be one of the featured couples that allowed cameras to capture the everyday struggle of the emotional and physically pain of infertility. Candace Wohl also uses her passion for awareness and support to help other couples who struggle with infertility by hosting a local RESOLVE peer-led support group in Hampton Roads Virginia. She also advocates for pro-family building legislation in Washington D.C. and was the Vice-Co Chair of Marketing and Communications for the 2015 Advocacy Day. As a freelance writer and infertility advocate, Candace has also written articles featured on The Huffington Post, Still Standing Magazine,FertilityAuthority.com, Surrogacy Together Magazine, Adoption.Net and multiple other communications.